Wednesday, December 29, 2010

And ask her why has the U.S Government been SILENT on the death threats against Malaysian Civil Rights activists for their posted "Ït Gets Better" Videos. Secretary Clinton herself, posted an amazing video to the "It Gets Better" project eariler this year.

The silence from our State Department on these death threats, some made by Malaysian Government Officials, is very disturbing.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

As you may have been aware, Seksualiti Merdeka, which champions the human rights of sexually marginalised communities in Malaysia, particularly the rights of LGBTs, has come under fire recently for our video project "It Gets Better in Malaysia". Right now we are being overwhelmed by the majority view that we are destroying Malaysian society. The videos have been mistakenly interpreted as a series of coming out videos set to insult the country's religion. Nothing can be further from the truth. In our statement released last week, we said:

"It Gets Better in Malaysia is a video project about giving hope to young LGBT Malaysians: even though things can be rough during the teenage years, it can get better. This message is targeted at the minority of young Malaysians who are growing up as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT).

"This project is in response to accounts of suicides and attempted suicides by LGBT teenagers and adults. Statistics of such suicides are anywhere between three to six times higher than by heterosexuals. This is due to the overwhelming feelings of loneliness, fear or hopelessness that result from the stigma and discrimination against them. Most people have their families to turn to. For LGBT youths, even their own families can be a source of rejection. They have no one to turn to. We decided it is up to us who have survived similar situations to reach out to young LGBTs. This is why the project was born. It’s not about making coming out videos. It is about giving hope to youths at risk." (Read the full statement here:http://www.seksualitimerdeka.org/)

If anything, the widespread fear and ignorance towards LGBTs here, coupled with the state-sanctioned misunderstanding towards the community, prove that such messages of hope are necessary and vital. So far we have released 5 of the videos and intend to release more. But the one video that seemed to have attracted attention is the one by Azwan Ismail. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJLSteQIcms). And among the comments it attracted, some on blogs, are threats of violence, stoning and death towards him.

We have some support in blogs and commentaries, mainly in English-medium news portals. The mainstream news mainly carry articles quoting officials asking for action to be taken upon us. The individuals who have been quoted include Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom and Perak Mufti Datuk Sri Harussani Zakaria, in Berita Harian and The Star respectively, asking JAKIM to take appropriate action.

None of these people mentioned anything about the violent threats and death threats, almost as if legitimizing them. Harian Metro also ironically claimed Seksualiti Merdeka is threatening Muslims. (you can find the links to the articles at http://www.seksualitimerdeka.org/)

Only The Sun Daily and The Star mentioned the death threats against Azwan, but neither carried statements by Malaysian officials condemning the threats. (The Star carried the inteview by Associated Press.)

But for now we would like to request for the support from Malaysian NGOs, personalities and our supporters to speak up for us. Below are some ways you may help:

1. To oppose all threats of violence, stoning and death. One comment we saw asked for "sula" to be meted out. Another blog, after listing three ways of killing homosexuals, suggested that if the authorities don't take action, Muslims should not be blamed if they took actions into their own hands. Please oppose the legitimising of hate speech and violence.

2. To oppose insults, disparaging remarks and jokes made at the expense of LGBTs in Malaysia. To oppose discrimination of LGBTs who have committed no crime just being who they are.

3. To oppose criminalising and punishing LGBTs for being who they are. To oppose criminalising and punishing members of Seksualiti Merdeka for empowering marginalised communities and doing social work.

4. To support that we have done NOTHING to insult Islam. In fact, we are simply making it possible so that young people don't take their own lives. (But seeing all these hate going on, it might just prompt them instead.) In fact, we too believe that sexuality is a responsibility, no matter whether you are straight or LGBT. We want to be given a chance to show people how to be responsible with their own sexuality. This include being self-aware, self-accepting, as well as being aware and accepting of others. And respecting each other's rights.

5. To support allowing LGBTs in Malaysia to have avenues to express ourselves in order to create more understanding. This is included in the 4 recommendations at the end of our statement, which we hope you will support.

6. To support the human rights of all LGBTs in Malaysia regardless of their race, religion, age, gender identity or sexual orientation.

7. To support Seksualiti Merdeka's initiatives and the "It Gets Better in Malaysia" project.

We also hope you may offer your support, if possible, not only in English but also Bahasa Melayu, to be directed at the Malay-language media. We encourage you to write to the editors of the above publications, post blogs or facebook status or twitters to vocally support us.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Pang Khee Teik, one of Malaysia's most recognisable sexuality rights activists, shares his journey from being a schoolboy in Singapore who was often bullied by his classmates to undergoing reparative therapy at a church for 12 years to self-acceptance as a gay man.

He is one of Malaysia's most recognisable sexuality rights activists. His quote "Stop censoring who I am" was even Time Online's quote of the day on 25 Feb 2009. At the time he wrote a lengthy letter to the press to protest Malaysian cable TV operator Astro's decision to censor the words “gay” and “lesbian” from Sean Penn's and Dustin Lance Black's Oscar acceptance speeches – for their movie Milk about American gay rights activist Harvey Milk – in which they called for equal rights for gay men and lesbians.

In this video, the fifth of the It Gets Better in Malaysia series, Pang shares his journey to self-acceptance as a gay man from as a schoolboy in Singapore who was often bullied by his classmates to undergoing reparative therapy at a church for 12 years where he was told that being gay is wrong and it is possible to change one's orientation from gay straight.

"For 12 years, I stopped myself from loving. Every time I fell in love or had a crush on someone, a guy, I stopped myself. I did not allow my heart to feel what it needed to feel... There are many ways to kill yourself. One of the ways is to stop yourself from loving, to stop yourself from living. And for 12 years I did that. And I died slowly everyday. Until one day I realised and I asked myself what is wrong with love."

Saturday, December 18, 2010

There is a lot that can, and will be said about all this I am sure. But frankly that can wait. What is important to say right now, is simply this;

Today the Congress of the United States finally agrees with the proposition that someone who is willing to risk his or her life to defend this nation should not be deemed LESS equal than the citizens they are defending.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Paul Butler, a Facebook engineering intern, transformed social data into a stunningly beautiful visual that outlines the geographical borders of Facebook friendships.

It worked like this--by using a random sample of ten million pairs of Facebook friends, Butler plotted both their locations and their connection to one another on a graph. By repeating that step with each member of his sample, Butler found that the resulting image formed the outline of a world map, with the most marked areas forming where major cities are located.

The result is this stunning map, which displays exactly what Butler had intended it to. "I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends. I wanted a visualization that would show which cities had a lot of friendships between them," he wrote on Facebook's engineering blog. (Which is also worth checking out for a more detailed explanation of his process plotting the map).

True, it's not exactly shocking that a visualization of Facebook friendship data shows that most connections are within short distances of one another and that major cities have more connections than remote regions. But so what? This map is so neat that it's worth the time this experiment likely took. (via All Facebook)

The since 2001, the Republican Party has long claimed that ONLY the GOP truly understood the implications of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001; and how "everything changed" on that day. In addition they often accuse the Democrats and President Obama of having a "Pre-9/11 mentality". (By which they mean soft on terrorism.)

In the years that have followed, the Republican Party turned the memory of 9/11 into their party's political brand. Wrapping all of their candidates and polices in the red-white-and blue cloak of "September the eleventh"...

Last night on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show", host Jon Stewart talked about the sheer hypocrisy of Republicans who have used the attacks of September 11th, 2001 as a political marketing campaign to claim they love America more than anyone else; while at the same time voting AGAINST help for first responders injured in the aftermath of those same terror attacks...

"So, let me get this straight - Larry King is getting his 8th divorce, Elizabeth Taylor is possibly getting married for a 9th time, Britney Spears had a 55 hour marriage. Jesse James and Tiger Woods are screwing EVERYTHING, yet the idea of same-sex marriage is going to destroy the institution of marriage?? ...Really??"

Monday, December 06, 2010

The Republican Party has discovered the sad and very inconvenient truth about Barack Obama, President Obama, is a good man, an intelligent man, who is very weak. President Obama is not a Leader, he is a negotiator, and not a very good one. On issue after issue, from Health Care Reform, to Wall Street Reform, Congressional Republicans, found that President Obama, seemed to prefer a really bad agreement, to no agreement.

As a result, the GOP learned very quickly , that it was all too easy to back the President into a corner, where his natural urge to "find common ground", meant he would abandon his stated principles and simply give in and give up. All the while making very eloquent statements about the value of bi-partisanship.

Today President Barack Obama apparently decided he doesn't want a second term. The great irony here is that he will likely suffer the same electoral fate as the first President Bush. George HW Bush agreed to the 1990 budget deal with Congressional Democrats. Then in 1992 the Democrats turned around and attacked Bush for breaking his "read my lips" pledge on no new taxes.

Make no mistake, in 2012 the GOP will firmly lay the deeper hole, that this "compromise" will dig in terms of the deficit and the National Debt, firmly at the feet of the President and the Democrats. You can almost see the ads, labeling the trillions of dollars of added debt as the "Obama Record".

This deal is the GOP's biggest Christmas wish come true. The Democrats have just lost their only real campaign issue. The wildly unpopular "Bush Tax Cuts for Millionaires and Billionaires" are now officially the "Obama Tax Cuts for Millionaires and Billionaires".

The one year extension of Unemployment Insurance benefits is a very good thing, but to think it could not have been accomplished with out caving in on tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy is the biggest political cop-out since Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act.

With solid majorities in both houses of Congress the Obama Administration refused to even consider using even the threat of budget reconciliation to get his agenda through congress.

From National Public Radio:Budget reconciliation, a provision of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act, is designed to force committees to make changes in mandatory – or entitlement – spending and revenues. The rules for budget reconciliation in the Senate restrict the procedure to provisions dealing with the budget. They also set strict protocols for consideration of the bills in both chambers. Under the procedures for reconciliation bills, debate in both houses is limited to 20 hours, and no Senate filibusters are allowed.

Congress has used reconciliation occasionally for non-budget legislation, including rewriting health care and welfare policy, as the Republican majority did in passing major welfare reform in 1996. Resorting to budget reconciliation is the legislative equivalent of breaking out the heavy artillery in a pitched battle. Since the early 1980s, it has been used 19 times, primarily to steer controversial fiscal and budgetary policies through the Senate, including former President Bill Clinton’s fiscal 1994 deficit reduction and tax package and President George W. Bush’s major tax cuts.

So instead we have had two years of eloquent words, and abandoned priorities. I never thought I would look at the Obama Administration, and find myself wishing it was more like the fictional Bartlett Administration of "The West Wing".

It will be very hard for Democrats to campaign as the antidote to GOP fiscal insanity, when their track record is just as crazy.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

The State of Illinois this week approved Civil Unions for Gay and Lesbian Couples. Given the hate fueled hysteria on this issue across the border to the North in Wisconsin, it is so refreshing to see and hear simple common sense on this issue. Cue IL State Senator Rick Hendon...

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

The past week has been an amazing one in American Politics. As the outgoing lame duck Congress comes back into session to try to tie up a number of loose ends, the Republican Party has decided to double down on their strategy of preventing anything from getting done, no matter the cost.

In one of the most remarkable displays of politics at its worst, the outgoing GOP minority has decided that since they have ignored sanity, reason, and the good of American People for four years, why should they change now.

With over two million Americans facing the expiration of their unemployment compensation benefits at midnight tonight, with a vital arms reduction treaty with Russia awaiting ratification, and with pending action on the debt ceiling to insure ability of the Government itself to continue functioning; what do you suppose the GOP says is it's ONLY priority...

Tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy. The top 2% of millionaires and billionaires. The GOP is so concerned about giving tax breaks to the richest of the rich that today they announced that they will prevent ANY and ALL other legislation from being voted on until the tax cuts for the uber-rich are passed. Rachel Maddow breaks it down for us.

So just to be clear, it is the official position of the Republican Party that Government stepping in to prevent over two million unemployed Americans from losing their only means of support is completely unacceptable, because it would add 60 Billion Dollars to the federal deficit in the short term. But giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America that would addmore than 700 Billion Dollars to the deficit... THAT is so important to Republicans that they will allow NOTHING else to get done until their tax cuts for the super rich are passed.

It is clear that in the mind of the GOP, anyone who dares point out that tax cuts for the mega rich do not create jobs or stimulate the broader economy, (a FACT that the past 8 years have clearly shown) must be a socialist who clearly hates America. The GOP loves to talk about Jobs, but has no desire to do ANYTHING that might actually create more of them. Again, Rachel Maddow takes us down the GOP's delusional garden path.

It is clear the if you are unemployed, or even if you are simply not among the wealthiest two percent of Americans, the Republican Party thinks you are clearly a lazy parasite and hates you for standing between them and their beloved tax breaks for the ultra-rich.

Happy Holidays America! For those of you who now will be destitute because the GOP wrecked the economy and you lost your job , and now have no unemployment benefits; The Republican opposition to you having affordable Health Care now makes sense. They want you to hurry up and die, to "decrease the surplus population..."